Yep, but Proxima Centauri is a red dwarf, and so it's Goldilocks zone is small and close to the star. Any Earth-sized planet in the zone will be tidally locked, which makes the sun-side a lot warmer than average, and the dark side a lot colder. Any atmosphere would constantly rush around
and the volatiles would get stuck in cold traps on the far side.
Quote from: the_other_Doug on 08/13/2016 02:03 amYep, but Proxima Centauri is a red dwarf, and so it's Goldilocks zone is small and close to the star. Any Earth-sized planet in the zone will be tidally locked, which makes the sun-side a lot warmer than average, and the dark side a lot colder. Any atmosphere would constantly rush aroundWhy would atmosphere do that? On a tidally locked planet, thermal changes over time are *less* pronounced than on Earth.
The Hubble observations show that it has winds that howl at the speed of sound from the day side that is hot enough to melt iron — soaring above 1500 degrees Celsius — to the pitch black night side that sees temperatures plunge to a comparatively cool 500 degrees Celsius.
If this is true, I predict a huge interest in interstellar travel to be renewed. Unlike anything we've yet seen.
Yep, but Proxima Centauri is a red dwarf, and so it's Goldilocks zone is small and close to the star. Any Earth-sized planet in the zone will be tidally locked, which makes the sun-side a lot warmer than average, and the dark side a lot colder. Any atmosphere would constantly rush around and the volatiles would get stuck in cold traps on the far side. The twilight band might be livable, assuming any of the volatiles stay in a zone where it's not too warm, and not too cold, for liquid water.
M dwarfs tend to be active, with spots and flares, and hence significant short term variability issues in both luminosity and spectra. It will be interesting to see how the authors dealt with the activity, if this report turns out to be true.
Quote from: the_other_Doug on 08/13/2016 02:03 amYep, but Proxima Centauri is a red dwarf, and so it's Goldilocks zone is small and close to the star. Any Earth-sized planet in the zone will be tidally locked, which makes the sun-side a lot warmer than average, and the dark side a lot colder. Any atmosphere would constantly rush aroundWhy would atmosphere do that? On a tidally locked planet, thermal changes over time are *less* pronounced than on Earth.Quoteand the volatiles would get stuck in cold traps on the far side.We have volatiles stuck in a giant cold trap on our South Pole. Not a problem as long as not all of them are stuck there.